Then he proceeded to tell the people this parable. “[A] man planted a vineyard, leased it to tenant farmers, and then went on a journey for a long time. 10 At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenant farmers to receive some of the produce of the vineyard. But they beat the servant and sent him away empty-handed. 11 So he proceeded to send another servant, but him also they beat and insulted and sent away empty-handed. 12 Then he proceeded to send a third, but this one too they wounded and threw out. 13 The owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I shall send my beloved son; maybe they will respect him.’ 14 But when the tenant farmers saw him they said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Let us kill him that the inheritance may become ours.’ 15 So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What will the owner of the vineyard do to them? 16 He will come and put those tenant farmers to death and turn over the vineyard to others.” When the people heard this, they exclaimed, “Let it not be so!” 17 But he looked at them and asked, “What then does this scripture passage mean: ‘The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’? 18 Everyone who falls on that stone will be dashed to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.” 19 The scribes and chief priests sought to lay their hands on him at that very hour, but they feared the people, for they knew that he had addressed this parable to them.
Luke used a parable from Isaiah to show the difference in response to Jesus between the crowd and the religious leaders. The owner of the vineyard is God. The Son is Jesus. The vineyard is Israel (Is. 5:1-7). The tenant farmers are the religious leaders. Those who respond to Jesus’ teaching form the reconstituted house of Israel, the new Christian community made up of Jews and Gentiles alike, God’s promise to Abraham of a great nation (Gen 12:2).
God prepared the soil, planted vines, and leased the vineyard to tenant farmers. He sent his messengers, the prophets, to see if the vineyard had yielded good produce but the vineyard had produced only wild grapes. Wild grapes represented actions contrary to the Law like oppression and injustice experienced by the people at the hands of the wealthy and powerful. The messengers were mistreated so the owner sent his beloved Son whom they threw out of the vineyard and killed (v. 15). Jesus was also telling the people what will happen to him. In Old Testament times, if a Jewish landowner died without an heir the tenants could claim the land. Turning over the vineyard to others (v. 16) could be a reference to the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 AD/CE.
The rejected stone is Jesus who became the cornerstone of the new building (Ps. 118:22), the reconstituted Israel; “Therefore, thus says the Lord God: See, I am laying a stone in Zion, a stone that has been tested, A precious cornerstone as a sure foundation; whoever puts faith in it will not waver (Is. 28:16).”
Almighty God, help us to be good tenants in your new vineyard and to be obedient to your will so that we can produce good fruit at the proper time that will be acceptable to you. This we pray through Christ our Lord who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever. Amen.
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References
Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. Paulist Press, 2018.
Faculty of the University of Navarre. The Navarre Bible: New Testament Expanded Edition. Expanded Edition, Four Courts / Scepter, 2008.
Brown, Raymond Edward, et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Upper Saddle River, NJ, United States, Prentice Hall, 1990.
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